Healing Rain
by KristosLilly
Summary: An alternate ending for Liv and Tyler. My own version of the events of 6x22. Parkwood fans, I hope you enjoy this and find some small manner of comfort in the words.


**A Healing Rain**

 _ **Liv and Tyler: A one shot; basically my interpretation of the events 6x22. This takes place a few hours**_ _ **after**_ _ **the inevitable showdown with Kai. Let's say in this story that Kai was sent back to the prison world. Bonnie and friends have defeated him (for now). I dedicate this story to MarkMcG9718 who has really wanted to read it. I hope it doesn't disappoint.**_

 _ **P.S. I started writing this before I saw the finale and I am glad because damn did seeing Tyler kill Liv cut me to pieces. It didn't have to end that way honestly. At least in fan fic, thank god, it doesn't have to!**_

* * *

He found her sitting in the garden, watching the stars and as he closed the distance between them, he could see tear tracks on her face. "Hey," he said and she swiped angrily at her face.

"What do you want?" She asked.

 _I want you,_ he thought. _I just want you._ Aloud he said, "I'm worried about you."

Liv climbed to her feet. "Don't worry about me, okay? We sent Kai back to the prison world – mostly thanks to Bonnie – and he can't hurt us anymore." She started to push past him but he grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to a stop.

"Liv, come on. You don't have to pretend to be okay for me."

Another tear rolled down her cheek and she turned away. "I'm fine. So what if my sister and her babies died today? So what if Luke, the one person who could make all of this better somehow, is gone too. Who fucking cares? Because I don't!"

"We both know that's not true. You care; you care a lot," Tyler said and he found himself tugging her forward, right into an embrace. She struggled against him but he just held her tighter. She pounded on his chest as sobs wracked her trim frame.

"Let me go!" she screamed.

"I can't do that," Tyler said. "I just can't. I almost lost you in there tonight. Kai was going to kill you right in front of me and-" He broke off. He wasn't good with this emotional stuff.

"Maybe it would have been better if we had let him kill me."

"No. You hear? Never. I would never –"

She looked up at him, rapidly blinking her aqua eyes. "You'd never what?"

"Be okay… If something happened to you," he said and he couldn't resist reaching out and brushing a soft curl with the pad of his thumb. "I wouldn't be okay at all."

Liv stared at him. "You're just saying that because-"

"Because it's true. Liv, when Kai had you; when I thought for sure he was going to snap your neck and there was nothing I could do to stop him… Life flashed before my eyes."

"Be serious."

"It's true. _Our_ life, what could have been. What still could be…"

"Tyler…"

"I love you, Liv. I think I've always known it but I was a coward or just stubborn or something and –"

She wrenched free from him. "If you loved me, you wouldn't have told me you never wanted to see me again."

"I was freaking out!" He said. "Don't you get it? I thought you were going to die and I just didn't want to stand by and see that. It was a mistake."

"What?"

"It was a mistake."

"I never thought I'd hear you admit that," Liv said quietly. She crossed her arms. "But it doesn't change anything. You still hurt me and even if you tried to save my life today… Well, it doesn't count after the way you threw me aside before."

He nodded. "I know but … I just had to tell you how I felt. Maybe today is the wrong time but I had to say it. Because I have a feeling if you walk out of this garden right now, I'm never going to see you again. I hate that, by the way." He scuffed his shoe on the ground.

"I lost so much, Ty," Liv said. She splayed her hands. "But I guess you did too. I mean, I know you did. Your whole family is gone and your friend Elena … She's somewhere where you all can't hope to get to her."

"I don't need you to feel sorry for me."

"The last thing I feel for you is pity, Tyler," Liv said, almost spat. "I feel so damn much for you and I told Luke that I didn't want to fall for you because you'd hurt me and I was right. I hate being right… I fucking hate it."

"Liv –"

"You know what the craziest thing is?"

"What?"

"I can almost hear Luke right now. He would tell me not to waste another minute being mad; not to be scared. He'd have all these fucking Hallmark phrases ready to disarm me with and yet they wouldn't sound trite coming from him."

Tyler nodded. "Maybe you should listen to Luke."

Liv sighed and rocked on her bare feet. At some point in the epic struggle with Kai she'd lost her high heels. "I want to but-"

"You don't think you can trust me."

"Tell me, Tyler… Can I trust you … With this?" She asked, clapping her hand over her heart.

"I am going to mess up sometimes, Liv, but the biggest mistake I ever made was walking away from you and I know I wouldn't do that again. I sometimes repeat my mistakes – okay, I usually do – but not this. I am standing here telling you… I won't leave you again. There are no guarantees okay? We know that better than anyone but we just do the most we can while we have now."

Liv sniffled. "Wow… And here I accused you of being a monosyllabic idiot… You just said a lot. I mean you're still an idiot but-"

He smiled. "Hey."

"But that was still nice to hear. I needed that today. I am just telling you if you want me, I am not the same person I used to be. Everything changed today, _forever._ I am not sure who I am anymore. Maybe I never knew."

"Let me tell who you are then… To me."

She looked at him warily but finally nodded. He closed the distance between them and reached for her hands, intertwining their fingers. "Liv, you're beautiful and you're strong. You don't feel like that right now but you are. You survived more in a matter of months than most people do in five lifetimes. You have this amazing capacity to care, even about idiots like me who don't deserve it. You're … _you,_ Liv. And that's everything. Maybe you feel lost right now but I want to be around to remind you of who I know you are … You just gotta give me that chance."

"I'm broken," Liv cried. He disentangled their hands and reached up, slowly wiping her tears one by one. "Maybe you deserve better than me."

"You're amazing the way you are, Liv. In this moment, I love who you are. I am always going to love you, period."

"Tyler…"

"It's true," he said. He leaned over and kissed her teary cheeks, tasting the saltiness of her tears on his lips. "I love you. I will keep telling you that until you believe me, until you _feel_ it."

"I do feel it," Liv said and then they kissed. Tyler knew it was the best kiss he'd ever had. It was full of pain and heartbreak but also passion and genuine feeling.

They stood there kissing for the longest time. Her body shook and she collapsed against him. He held her tight as he could.

Rain began to fall all of a sudden, a warm rain that some might call cleansing, even healing maybe. Tyler wasn't given over to fanciful thoughts like that but in that moment, it felt like maybe, just maybe, things might turn out alright.

FINIS.

 _ **I hope this turned out okay. Tonight's episode ripped my heart out in so many ways and I decided to post this the way I wrote it last week because I needed some kind of hopeful ending which the writers of TVD obliterated tonight. *I am still crying***_


End file.
